NGO Round Table International president visits Nagpur

Nagpur: President of NGO Round Table International (RTI) Majid Tunda visited Nagpur last week during his India tour and interacted with fellow members. Tunda, who is based out of Mauritius, was travelling across the country and sharing the NGO’s vision and philosophy.

At an interaction with the media, Tunda talked about the tough road RTI had to traverse before getting legal status.

“Till 1992, RTI did not have legal status, but after a lot of efforts and gaining credibility for the self-less philanthropic activities, 56 countries have recognized us as a non-profit NGO. We also have ISO Certification (for credibility), FCRA Account and a strict Internal and external Audit (for transparency),” he said.

Tunda said he was interested in creating a digital platform where all activities taken by the ‘Tables’ across the globe could be seen. “It will be a platform where ideas and concepts can be shared and advises from experts obtained,” said Tunda.

The other goal for Tunda is of organizing and executing one global event/project where every country participates. “This project, along with a team of 10 personnel from different countries, has been envisaged and is working on the theme of “Shaping the Future of the Children globally,” said Tunda.

He also talked about fund raising efforts of the NGO. “Fund raising is not an easy work yet Round Table has achieved it. Last year alone, 20 million Euros were raised globally for various philanthropic activities,” said Tunda. He said they are able to raise funds because of the credibility they have gained over a period of time and more and more people are associating with them.

Immediate Past President National Round Table India, Dhruv Dalmia, said that philanthropy cannot be graded as good or bad. “Our national vision “Freedom Through Education” has come a long way, what started 25 years ago has achieved its target,” said Dalmia.

This year after the new National Executive Body took charge, they have decided to take it one step further. Not only will they felicitate in educating the under-privileged but also strive to get them employed. They are now working on compiling the data of children who have passed out from the school they (Round Table India) have helped in building and sending them for skill development training and eventual placements.

So far, around 650 children have been successfully placed. Dalmia said, “So far, we have identified 6,800 children all over India. All the Chapters are collecting data. Last year, we organized two job fairs (in Kolkata and Guwahati) where nearly 1,000 youngsters participated and on the spot nearly 300 got placed.”

Chairman of Round Table International for Asia Pacific (ASPA) Region (2019-20) Jayant Agrawal, while speaking of the philanthropic work in 10 countries from India to New-Zealand, said, “The work is pretty challenging since the countries are different in terms of political, demography etc. They are diverse in nature so one programme or one standard cannot be employed for all the countries.”

Convener of Asia Pacific (ASPA) Extension and Fellowship D K Singh said that last year, they extended to Nigeria and Maldives and this year they intend to extend in Cameroon, Rwanda and Ukraine. The above dignitaries were in the city for the Yarana-Change Over Banquet (COB) for Round Table India. Also present were Yarana COB Co-Convener Tabler Nilay Verma and Area 3 Honorary Tabler Sharad Agrawal.